Home Archive by category "Progressive Rock" (Page 16)

Category: Progressive Rock

Life’s Soundtrack – Another Strong Run with Prog Rock from Sweden’s Cloudscape!

Cloudscape – Progressive Metal – Sweden

So while I’m not where I want to be yet, tonight’s run was the first time in a long while that I felt strong through the whole run. The four miles seemed to fly by pretty quickly!! The splits went like this: Mile 1 – 10:01, 2- 10:17, 3, 10:15, 4 10:20 not bad at all! Early in the month, the last two miles were like a 1 minute or so per mile slower than the first two miles. Overall, I was about 1:38 faster than the last time I ran this course!! Read More

Life’s Soundtrack (that could have been) – Pictures from a Time Traveler – Marcus Jidell

Pictures from a Time TravelerEvergrey  and Dragonforce are two of my son Andrew’s favorite bands and over the last few years they have been in my music library. Music from both bands often becomes my running music, Dragonforce by choice and Evergrey by happenstance. Many times a track from Evergre4y will come on when the iPod is on random shuffle.When that happens, I usually catch myself thinking this sounds good, then after checking  who the and is, and I discover it’s Evergrey!!  Now the question you may be asking about now is – why are you telling me this?? .The answer lies in the music I was listening to last night and hoped to make the soundtrack of my run tonight!!Marcus JidellYesterday, I was looking for some new prog rock. to listen to and tried several new releases. I gave each of them the 30 second test and settled on the album, Pictures From A Time Traveller from Marcus Jidell . The decision to pick this album was a combination of the 30 second test and reading the following at New Prog Rock Releases: Read More

Life’s Soundtrack A Good Slow Run with Katatonia!

So I ran again last night. I was going to go Sunday but the temperature topped out close to 90 degrees. The forecast for Monday had the high at 81, which is more in my comfort zone,so I waited.
Before I ran I created a new loop course that was around four miles and took of with Runmeter marking the miles and Katatonia, a progressive metal band in my ears. Overall the first three miles weren’t too bad then my heart rate. started going up, so I cut my pace back to keep it under 170! While the run seemed faster and easier, the overall pace was around that same 10:45 min per mile pace. Hey, it was still fairly warm and I did it and that’s what counts! Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – Black Sabbath’s 13!

Black Sabbath 13I have never been a Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne fan, so the release of 13 the first Black Sabbath album in 35 years to feature Ozzy really did nothing for me. But we were going to a picnic at the shore today, about an hour plus away, and both my son Nick and wife like Ozzy, so I went to Mog and put the album on the iPhone. Now while I am not an Ozzy fan, I did enjoy the first season or two of  The Osbournes, mostly to laugh at Ozzy’s incoherence. So I was surprised, as we listened to the album, that Ozzy’s vocals were really good, and more importantly for the most part I could understand the lyrics!! On the way back, I put the album on again and commented that I didn’t understand how an incoherent Ozzy could perform like this! Nick said some people are saying that there’s been some auto tuning with Ozzy’s vocals, but my wife explained it by saying when he’s singing he doesn’t have to think! He just reads and sings and doesn’t have to form coherent sentences! Like a stutterer who can sing without stuttering. Anyway, I’ve heard enough Ozzy over the years to know that overall this album is pretty close to vintage Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I did enjoy Tommy Iommi’s guitar work and the overall sound of the band. So I think that most of the band’s fans will like this album a lot! I know my wife liked it! From Ultimate Classic Rock’s:Black Sabbath, ’13′ – Album Review” Read More

Climbing the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” with Sound of Contact!

DimensionautSo the other day, I wrote that Andrew told me that, along with The Winery Dogs, I should listen to Sound of Contact, and not to read about the band until after I listen. So I did as instructed and about mid-way through the album, the band started to remind me of Genesis. After listening , and enjoying the album I went to read about the band and I found out the reason that they sounded a like Genesis was their drummer…. his name is Simon Collins, yup he’s Phil’s son!!Sound of ContactCollins has released three solo albums but he always wanted to form a band. Through the years, as he was recording and performing his own music, he was also keeping contact  with a group  of musicians with whom he had a strong connection and chemistry. So finally this year, the band became a reality when  “Sound of Contact” was formed. In addition to Simon, the band includes co-producer/co-writer/keyboardist Dave Kerzner (Sonic Reality, Kevin Gilbert) and co-writer/guitarist/bassist Matt Dorsey.  Also helping out are some great co-writers and musicians including guitarist/bassist Kelly Nordstrom and guest vocalist Hannah Stobart (Rocket Moth, Wishing Tree). Read More

Beware of the Winery Dogs…. Good rockin’ headed your way!

The Winery DogsSo two of my all-time favorite power trios, (guitar, bass and drums) are Cream (Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton) and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix, Noel Redding(bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums)). Saturday, Andrew told me to be on the look out for a new power trio, The Winery Dogs, composed of the ubiquitous drummer from Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy, guitarist Richie Kotzen, and bass player Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big. He says the advance press from the youtube videos that are on-line is pretty good! Read More

Prog Explorations – from Germany Crises – Coral Dreams

Coral Dreams

So one of the albums that’s been on the iPhone for a while and really hasn’t been listened too fully is from the German Prog Rock band Crises. The album is their 2009 release Coral Dreams But tonight I was listening to a mix of tracks on the iPhone and several of the tracks on the album came on and they sounded really good , so I went and listened to a few more and I say I am going to have to give the album a full listen! From ProgArchives: Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – A Good Run with Prog Rockers Spock’s Beard!

So last night I came home last night and wasn’t sure whether I was going to run. I expressed that sentiment to my wife who reminded me that I feel better when I run! So that was the nudge that I needed to get me on the road. When I started my legs felt really good, and for the first time in a long time I didn’t feel like turning around and going home within the first half-mile! I hit the first mile mark in about 9:45 and the held on to average 10:02 per mile for the rest of the run! While my heart rate is still above where I’d like it throughout the run the good thing is that it’s almost under 100 within 5 minutes after the run! Now I just have to work on getting two more days per week in consistently! The soundtrack for the run was last year’s live album from Spock’s Beard, The X Tour Live. Spock's Beard X LiveNow I have stayed away from Spock’s Beard because it’s one of my sons favorite bands. I know that should make me want to listen to the band, but somehow it has the opposite effect on me – now it may just be that I enjoy being contrary or that I’m afraid I won’t like them! Anyway the fear of not liking them has been removed! I thoroughly enjoyed the album. Now over this may not be the band that Andrew loves, because the band has had many personnel changes over the last ten years. The biggest being the departure of founding member Neal Morse. Morse founded the band in 1992 along with his brother Alan. left the band in 2002 to focus on his solo career. Therefore, the album “Feel Euphoria” released in 2003 was a new beginning. The band released Octane in 2005 and a self-titled release in 2006. They released the album X in 2010. The album that I listened to was The X Tour Live. Jimmy KEEGAN provided some additional vocals on that release and later followed the band on the promotional tour for the new material. After the release of  X Nick D’VIRGILIO left the band to concentrate on his solo career. The line-up for the X Tour Live was: Nick D’Virgilio / vocals, drums, guitar Dave Meros / bass Alan Morse / guitar Ryo Okumoto / keyboards Jimmy Keegan/ tour drums The line-up for their latest 2013 release Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep is: ( I listened to parts of that album today) Alan Morse / Guitar & Vocals Dave Meros / Bass, Bass Pedals, Keyboards & Vocals Ryo Okumoto / Keyboards & Vocals Ted Leonard / Lead Vocals & Guitar Jimmy Keegan / Drums & Vocals Anyway, the run only got me through the first five songs on the album. The two tracks that really stood out for me were “From the Darkness” and “The Man Behind the Curtain” I’m listening to the album now and the track “On a Perfect Day” is on and it sounds great! Overall, the album has a 3.55 rating at the ProgArchives and is labeled as an excellent addition to any Prog Rock collection and the novice says: I agree. Now Andrew, you have to tell me what earlier albums to listen to, when Neal Morse lead the band! Here is a performance of the aforementioned “On a Perfect Day” Read More